1. Area of the Invention
The present invention relates to method and system for controlling the use of devices which are controlled by an electric or an electronic circuit. In particular, the present invention relates to such method and system for selectively controlling specific types of operation of such devices.
2. Disadvantages of Prior Art
The above mentioned term ‘device’ should be understood in context with the inventive concepts presented in here as very broad and general. Basically, a broad variety of devices can be subjected to the method of the present invention and their use or their operation can be selectively controlled by it.
In general, many electronically controllable devices are provided with an on/off switch in order to enable the device for operation. If the use of a device is sensible for questions of data security or access, in general, the device is protected with an access control system which a person intending to use the device has to pass prior using it.
For example, a prior art method and system for controlling the personal use of a device can be a TV device being connected to a Pay-TV channel access system via a set-top box. The Set-top box acts as an access control system and provides card reader unit for authenticating any registered user. After being identified a user can freely access the Pay-TV channels.
A disadvantage of this kind of control can be seen in the fact, that the use of the device is either admitted—in total—or it is restricted in total. There are not provided any possibilities of defining selected types of operation and specifying individual constraints of usage for a specific device. Such sophisticated access control logic would require intelligent back-end systems with some sort of a user management system. The possibility to allow a selected type of operation and certain constraints of usage, however, is desirable for devices in many cases—even in such cases in which a device is not provided with any access control system and no user management infrastructure at all. For example, a common TV device can only be locked into a cupboard, so the access to the TV is prevented generally, when the cupboard is locked, and such desired selective type of device operation is only possible with an adult person surveying the children's TV-channel selection.
In this case, however, the use of the TV device would be desired for children only during predetermined intervals of time, at specific days and on specific channels, in addition only a specific total time of watching television in a week could be desirable.
Different devices have always different procedures of controlling their operation. In case of a car sharing company it is difficult to control the duration of time in which the car is used by a client. As the duration of such use can be considered as a basic requirement for the client's bill an exact determination of said duration of device operation would be desirable.